(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a light emitting rotating body, and more particularly, to a rotating body on an automobile having a plurality of light sources thereon which get power supply from an extra-miniature generator driven by a rotatable vane installed on the rotating body so as to cause those light sources to illuminate surrounding roadway thereby not only providing traffic security night time lighting for vehicles and pedestrians, but also exhibiting a beautiful visual feeling for observers.
(2) Description of the Prior Art
The automobile industry has accumulated about 100-year experience, the progress achieved in mechanical structures and styles of all kinds of automobiles together with their kinetic characteristics is extraordinarily amazing, However, speaking of an automobile contribution, nothing is added except performing its inherent function of transportation by mean of its rotating wheels.
In a dark environment in lack of sufficient roadway lighting, the automobile lights, including headlights and tail lamps are relied on as an essential light source of an automobile. Now, there arises a problem that the head lights are for illuminating the roadway ahead of the automobile advancing direction as far as possible for identify dangerous obstacles, both sides and rear side of the automobile have to be watched by the driver with the back mirrors. Meanwhile, being clogged by dead angles inherent to the automobile structure, the driver usually cannot clearly watch out vehicles and pedestrians moving around nearby especially in a dark surrounding. In such a pathetic situation, maintenance of traffic security must be relied on the driver""s alert treatment based on his/her inherent sensible cerebella response to a possible bursting danger.
In order to solve the above described problems, the present inventor paid attention to rotating of an automobile, e.g. wheels, and thought if there might be any possibility of providing auxiliary automobile lighting to illuminate nearby surrounding of the automobile other than in the front direction thereof especially in a dark environment, for example, night time, heavy rain, thick fog or sandstorm. Having been carried out theoretical studies and simulating experiments with long time efforts, the present inventor finally came to realization of the present invention based on these studies and researches.
It is a first object of the present invention to provide a light emitting rotating body by installing an extra miniature generator and a plurality of light sources on the wheels or other tires of an automobile so as to illuminate the surrounding of the automobile with power generated by the extra miniature generator as the automobile wheels rotate.
It is a second object of the present invention to improve traffic security for vehicles and pedestrians nearby with the light emitting rotating body of the present invention.
It is a third object of the present invention to exhibit a beautiful visual feeling for observers by illumination effect of the light emitting rotating body of the automobile.
It is a fourth object of the present invention to exhibit an innovative energy saving idea by the light emitting rotating body which produces required power usable to turn the light source by converting mechanical energy of rotating automobile wheels into electrical energy by an extra miniature generator.
To achieve these and other objects, there is a light emitting unit of one or more kinds selected from a group of light sources mentioned later installed on a rotating body of the automobile. The rotating body includes a wheel, a wheel cap/cover, a hub rotating disc, and a tire inlaid around the wheel.
An extra miniature generator installed on the rotating body is for converting the kinetic energy of the rotating body into electrical energy with a specially designed vane through an eccentric swinging block, and a bearing disc with associated gear wheel unit to continuously supply electricity to the light emitting unit. One or more than one second common AC/DC light sources including for example, neon lamp, cold cathode fluorescent lamp, electro luminescence (EL), and light emitting diode (LED), is/are accommodated in a protecting enclosure of the light sources together with its electronic rectifier circuit.